Giuseppe Pella (18 April 1902 – 31 May 1981) was an Italian
Christian Democratic
Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism.
It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...
politician who served as the 31st
prime minister of Italy
The Prime Minister of Italy, officially the President of the Council of Ministers ( it, link=no, Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri), is the head of government of the Italian Republic. The office of president of the Council of Ministers is ...
from 1953 to 1954. He was also
Minister of Treasury,
Budget
A budget is a calculation play, usually but not always financial, for a defined period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including time, costs and expenses, environment ...
and of
Foreign Affairs
''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy a ...
during the 1950s and early 1960s. Pella served as
President of the European Parliament from 1954 to 1956 after the death of
Alcide De Gasperi
Alcide Amedeo Francesco De Gasperi (; 3 April 1881 – 19 August 1954) was an Italian politician who founded the Christian Democracy party and served as prime minister of Italy in eight successive coalition governments from 1945 to 1953.
De Gasp ...
.
Pella is widely considered one of the most important politicians in Italy's post-war history. His
liberist economic and monetary policies strongly influenced the Italian reconstruction and the subsequent
economic miracle
Economic miracle is an informal economic term for a period of dramatic economic development that is entirely unexpected or unexpectedly strong. Economic miracles have occurred in the recent histories of a number of countries, often those undergoing ...
.
Early life and career
Giuseppe Pella was born in
Valdengo
Valdengo is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Biella in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about southeast of Biella.
Valdengo borders the following municipalities: Candelo, Cerreto Castello, Piat ...
, Piedmont. He was the second son of Luigi Pella and Viglielmina Bona,
sharecroppers in a small farm. After having obtained his elementary school certificate privately, he attended the three-year period of technical schools in
Biella
Biella (; pms, Biela; la, Bugella) is a city and '' comune'' in the northern Italian region of Piedmont, the capital of the province of the same name, with a population of 44,324 as of 31 December 2017. It is located about northeast of Turin a ...
and then an
accounting
Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "language ...
Institute in
Turin. After graduating in Economy and Commerce at the Royal Superior Institute of Turin in 1924, he became a professor of accounting at the
Sapienza University of Rome
The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a public research university located in Rome, Ita ...
and
University of Turin. He also started working as
tax advisor A tax advisor or tax consultant is a person with advanced training and knowledge of tax law. The services of a tax advisor are usually retained in order to minimize taxation while remaining compliant with the law in complicated financial situations. ...
and
auditor
An auditor is a person or a firm appointed by a company to execute an audit.Practical Auditing, Kul Narsingh Shrestha, 2012, Nabin Prakashan, Nepal To act as an auditor, a person should be certified by the regulatory authority of accounting and a ...
.
Under the regime of
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
, Pella was forced to join the
National Fascist Party (PNF), to continue his occupation as tax advisor and professor. As a fascist, he was appointed member of the Governing Council of the Fascist Culture Provincial Institute of Biella and consultant of the municipality of Biella. In the late 1930s he was appointment deputy ''
podestà'' of Biella, with the task of reorganizing city's financial system.
In 1934, Pella married Ines Maria Cardolle, from whom he had a daughter, Wanda, born in 1938.
During the
Italian Civil War, Pella started cooperating with the
National Liberation Committee
The National Liberation Committee ( it, Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale, CLN) was a political umbrella organization and the main representative of the Italian resistance movement fighting against Nazi Germany’s forces during the German occup ...
(CLN), a political
umbrella organization and the main representative of the
Italian resistance movement fighting against the German occupation of
Italy in the aftermath of the
armistice of Cassibile
The Armistice of Cassibile was an armistice signed on 3 September 1943 and made public on 8 September between the Kingdom of Italy and the Allies during World War II.
It was signed by Major General Walter Bedell Smith for the Allies and Brig ...
. After the end of the
World War II, he joined the
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism.
It was conceived as a combination of modern Democracy, d ...
(DC), led by
Alcide De Gasperi
Alcide Amedeo Francesco De Gasperi (; 3 April 1881 – 19 August 1954) was an Italian politician who founded the Christian Democracy party and served as prime minister of Italy in eight successive coalition governments from 1945 to 1953.
De Gasp ...
, becoming one of the main members of the party's right wing. After the
1946 general election, he became a member of the
Constituent Assembly of Italy
The Italian Constituent Assembly (Italian: ''Assemblea Costituente della Repubblica Italiana'') was a parliamentary chamber which existed in Italy from 25 June 1946 until 31 January 1948. It was tasked with writing a constitution for the Italia ...
. In July 1946, he was appointed under-secretary of Finances in the
second and
third
Third or 3rd may refer to:
Numbers
* 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3
* , a fraction of one third
* 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute''
Places
* 3rd Street (disambiguation)
* Third Avenue (disambiguation)
* Hi ...
governments of De Gasperi. On 6 June 1947, De Gasperi appointed him
Minister of Finance
A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation.
A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...
in his
fourth cabinet.
Minister of Treasury and Budget
From May 1948 until January 1954 Pella served as
Minister of Budget under the premiership of Alcide De Gasperi. Moreover, from May 1948 until July 1951 and again from February 1952 to August 1953, he also served as
Minister of Treasury. As minister he implemented
liberist and
monetarist policies, characterized by a strong ''
laissez-faire'' capitalism, which gained him the enmity of the
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy.
The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). ...
(PCI) and
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parties of the country.
Founded in Genoa in 1892 ...
(PSI), as well as harsh criticism from members of Christian Democracy's left-wing, like
Giuseppe Dossetti
Giuseppe Dossetti (13 February 1913 – 15 December 1996) was an Italian jurist, a politician, and from 1958 onward, a Catholic priest.
Political career
Dossetti was born in Genoa, the son of a piedmontese pharmacist and a mother from Regg ...
and
Giorgio La Pira
Giorgio La Pira, TOSD (Raimondo in religious life; 9 January 1904 – 5 November 1977) was an Italian Catholic politician who served as the Mayor of Florence. He also served as deputy of the Christian Democrats and participated in the assembl ...
. The American experts of the
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...
, who arrived in
Rome to check the use of Plan's funds, were disconcerted that not a dollar had been spent on a
Roosevelt
Roosevelt may refer to:
*Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th U.S. president
*Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), 32nd U.S. president
Businesses and organisations
* Roosevelt Hotel (disambiguation)
* Roosevelt & Son, a merchant bank
* Roosev ...
-like public spending policy: the funds had in fact been used exclusively to bring order to the public finance and to stabilize the state budget following the thought of
Luigi Einaudi.
Prime Minister of Italy
The
1953 general election was characterised by changes in the electoral law. Even if the general structure remained uncorrupted, the government introduced a
superbonus of two thirds of seats in the
House for the coalition which would obtain
at-large
At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather than ...
the
absolute majority
A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority ru ...
of votes. The change was strongly opposed by the opposition parties as well as DC's smaller coalition partners, who had no realistic chance of success under this system. The new law was called the ''Scam Law'' by its detractors, including some dissidents of minor government parties who founded special opposition groups to deny the artificial
landslide to Christian Democracy.
In the 7 June election, the government coalition won 49.9% of national vote, just a few thousand votes of the threshold for a supermajority, resulting in an ordinary proportional distribution of the seats. Technically, the government won the election, winning a clear working
majority of seats in both houses, but frustration with the failure to win a supermajority caused significant tensions in the leading coalition, which ended on 2 August, when De Gasperi was forced to resign by the
Parliament. On 17 August, President Einaudi appointed Pella as new
Prime Minister.
Pella Cabinet
The Pella Cabinet was the 8th cabinet of the Italian Republic. It held office from 17 August 1953 to 18 January 1954, for a total of 154 days (or 5 months and 1 day). President Luigi Einaudi invited Giuseppe Pella to form an interim cabinet fol ...
was immediately labeled as "administrative government", with the only aim of approving the budget law. As premier, he also served as ''ad interim''
Minister of Budget and
Foreign Affairs
''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy a ...
.
Pella gained further critics when, by issuing nationalistic declarations, he created strife with
Josip Broz Tito regarding the
Free Territory of Trieste. The Yugoslav dictator declared he would have invaded Trieste if the Americans had assigned it to Italy. Then, Pella threatened to send troops to the Eastern border in response to Tito's provocation. The crisis that could result in a military confrontation was brought back after many diplomatic efforts by the Western powers. His interventionism provoked opposite reactions in Parliament and in the press:
Monarchist National Party
The Monarchist National Party ( it, Partito Nazionale Monarchico, PNM) was a political party in Italy founded in 1946, uniting conservatives, liberal conservatives and nationalists. It was a right-wing competitor to Christian Democracy and was esp ...
(PNM) and the neo-fascist
Italian Social Movement (MSI) strongly supported him, while the leftist parties, and especially the communists, accused him of nationalism and
anti-communism
Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...
. Much of his own party remained neutral, partly because the governments of
United States and
United Kingdom wanted to keep good relations with Yugoslavia even at the cost of penalizing Italy. The media, however, described Pella as a patriot and as a courageous statesman. Much of the public opinion appreciated his policies.
On 12 January 1954, after only 5 months in power, a strong confrontation with many members of DC, regarding the appointment of
Salvatore Aldisio
Salvatore Aldisio ( Gela, 29 December 1890 – Rome, 27 July 1964) was an Italian Christian Democratic politician.
He was born in Gela is a town in the province of Caltanissetta. Thanks to the organizing work of Aldisio his hometown underwent a ...
as new
Minister of Agriculture
An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister ...
, forced Pella to resign.
After the premiership
After the end of his government, in November 1954, Pella was elected
President of the Common Assembly, the plenary assembly of
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which had been considered as the prototype of the
European Parliament. He hold the office until November 1956. His pro-European vision was clearly outlined already in the inauguration speech as president, where he sustained the need to create a Europe "inspired by the concept of supernationality, built not against nations but with the sincere collaboration of nations." Few years later, discussing about his years at the head of the European institution, he stated that he always held his office "with the determination to pursue the strategic plan of a progressive transfer of sovereignty from the member States to the European institutions."
In 1954, he founded, along with
Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti ( , ; 14 January 1919 – 6 May 2013) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as the 41st prime minister of Italy in seven governments (1972–1973, 1976–1979, and 1989–1992) and leader of the Christian Democrac ...
, a right-wing faction of Christian Democracy, known as "Concentration". In 1955 he was one of the kingmakers of
Giovanni Gronchi
Giovanni Gronchi, (; 10 September 1887 – 17 October 1978) was an Italian politician from Christian Democracy who served as the president of Italy from 1955 to 1962 and was marked by a controversial and failed attempt to bring about an "open ...
's
election to the Presidency of the Republic, against
Cesare Merzagora
Cesare Merzagora (9 November 1898 – 1 May 1991) was an Italian politician from Milan.
Biography
Merzagora was born in Milan on November 9, 1898.
Between 1947 and 1949 Merzagora would serve as Italy's Minister of Foreign Trade. He was Pres ...
, who was the candidate proposed by the Christian Democratic secretary,
Amintore Fanfani
Amintore Fanfani (; 6 February 1908 – 20 November 1999) was an Italian politician and statesman, who served as 32nd prime minister of Italy for five separate terms. He was one of the best-known Italian politicians after the Second World War and ...
. Pella and Andreotti's move gained the surprising support of communist and socialist parties, as well as the one monarchist and neo-fascist movements.
["Danger on the Left"]
'' Time'', 9 May 1955. After Gronchi's sworn in, Pella was considered the natural candidate for the premiership, however the new President of the Republic appointed
Antonio Segni
Antonio Segni (; 2 February 1891 – 1 December 1972) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as the president of Italy from May 1962 to December 1964 and the prime minister of Italy in two distinct terms between 1955 and 1960.
A memb ...
.
In May 1957, Pella served as
Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of
Adone Zoli
Adone Zoli (16 December 1887 – 20 February 1960) was an Italian politician who served as the 35th prime minister of Italy from May 1957 to July 1958; he was the first senator to have ever held the office.
A member of the Christian Democrac ...
, of whom he served also as
Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...
. He became Foreign Affairs Minister again under Segni, from February 1959 until March 1960, and
Minister of Budget in
Fanfani III Cabinet
The Fanfani III Cabinet was the 16th cabinet of the Italian Republic
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, ...
from July 1960 to February 1962.
A strong opponent of Fanfani's alliance with the Socialist Party, from 1962 he decided to keep aside. In the later years, he became president of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee from 18 July 1968 to 23 February 1972 and briefly returned to the government as Finance Minister in the
first government of Giulio Andreotti from February to June 1972, which however failed to gain confidence by the Parliament.
After leaving politics in 1976, he continued his role of President of "National Association of Insurance Institutes" and of the "Association of Tax Advisors and Accountants". He also led "Piemonte Italia", a promotional institute of studies on the regional economy, which he founded in the 1960s.
Pella died on 31 May 1981 in
Rome, at the age of 79.
Giuseppe Pella
Camera dei Deputati
Electoral history
Notes
Further reading
*
* Ivone, D. "Giuseppe Pella e la politica liberista nella ricostruzione economica del secondo Dopoguerra". ''Rivista internazionale di storia della banca'' (1982): vol 24-25 pp 104–20.
*
* Marcucci, Gabriella Fanello. ''Giuseppe Pella un liberista cristiano'' (Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino Editore, 2007), 427 pp.,
online review
* Pella, Giuseppe. "Resume de l'allocution de M. le Professeur Giuseppe Pella, Ministro del Bilancio. Conference consultative sur les aspects sociaux de la politique agricole commune. Rome, 28 septembre 1961= Summary of speech by Professor Giuseppe Pella, Minister for Budget. Consultative conference on the social aspects of the common agriculture policy. Rome, 28 September 1961". (1961)
online in French
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pella, Giuseppe
1902 births
1981 deaths
People from the Province of Biella
Christian Democracy (Italy) politicians
Prime Ministers of Italy
Deputy Prime Ministers of Italy
Foreign ministers of Italy
Finance ministers of Italy
Members of the Constituent Assembly of Italy
Deputies of Legislature I of Italy
Deputies of Legislature II of Italy
Deputies of Legislature III of Italy
Deputies of Legislature IV of Italy
Senators of Legislature V of Italy
Senators of Legislature VI of Italy
Politicians of Piedmont
Presidents of the European Parliament
Christian Democracy (Italy) MEPs
Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany